Lebanon clears ship claimed to carry stolen Ukranian grain: official
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The ship that was seized over Kiev's claims that it carried grain and flour stolen from Ukraine was cleared by Lebanon's prosecutor on Tuesday, according to an official.
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This frame grab from a video provided on Friday, July 29, 2022, shows a Syrian cargo ship Laodicea docked at a seaport, in Tripoli, north Lebanon (AP)
An official said that Lebanon's top prosecutor cleared on Tuesday a Syrian-flagged ship to be released after it was ordered to be seized over Kiev's claims that it carried grain and flour stolen from Ukraine.
Prosecutor Ghassan Oueidat instructed police to investigate the Laodicea, which docked in Tripoli on July 29, a judicial official said.
Oueidat "ordered the seizure of the ship until the investigation is completed", the official said as quoted by AFP.
The cargo of the Laodicea, which docked in the Lebanese port of Tripoli on Thursday, had "nothing wrong," according to a senior Lebanese customs official, and its papers were in order.
"Preliminary investigations... did not reveal the existence of a criminal offense, or that the goods were stolen," the official said on condition of anonymity.
Ukraine's embassy in Lebanon had claimed that the grain on board was loaded from a region that the Russian forces occupy and said it presented Lebanese authorities with evidence that the merchandise was stolen.
Read more: Ukraine claim of stealing wheat to send it to Lebanon, Syria refuted
On Saturday, Oueidat ordered the ship's seizure and ordered the police to investigate, but the prosecutor found that the grain on board belonged to a Syrian merchant, the judicial official said.
"The Syrian national whose name is on the shipment from Ukraine came in for investigation and presented the papers and documents that prove his ownership," the official said on Tuesday.
Russian Embassy in Beirut denies any knowledge of disputed grain ship
The Russian Embassy in Beirut denied any knowledge of Laodicea from the moment it set off for sailing to the moment it docked in Tripoli, Lebanon, affirming that there is no official line of communication between Russia and the vessel.
The Embassy went on to say that Laodicea bears the trademark of a private company that legally purchased grain and barley, according to information provided to the Embassy, which also provided that several private Turkish companies are partners in this ship.
The Ukrainian Embassy, on its part, released a statement that they will inform Lebanon of a decision issued by the Ukrainian court to seize the ship and confiscate its cargo, contending that Laodicea is on the list of ships accused of stealing grains from Ukraine.
The Syrian ship, according to the Ukrainian Embassy, is sanctioned by the US and holds 5,000 tons of wheat and 5,000 tons of barley.
Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib reported that Lebanon received warnings from Western nations after the Syrian ship docked in Tripoli with its cargo that Ukraine claims Russia "stole".
The day the ship docked, an official at a Turkey-based grains trading company denied Ukrainian claims, contending that the source was Russia.
The official, who works for Loyal Agro Co LTD, told Reuters that the company had sought to bring 5,000 tons of flour to Lebanon to sell to private customers, and not to the Lebanese government.
Lebanese government officials were inaccessible for comment.
Turkey expects daily departures from Ukraine following first sail
Turkey expects that roughly one-grain ship will leave the ports of Ukraine each day as long as the agreement ensuring the safe passage of grain ships is upheld, a senior Turkish official said Tuesday after the first grain ship set sail on Monday from the port of Odessa since the start of the Ukraine war.
Razoni, the first ship to leave Ukraine since late February, carrying 26,527 tons of corn to Lebanon, was crossing the western Black Sea off Romania's Danube Delta at 7:14 am GMT. The grain ship will be inspected on Wednesday, Refinitiv Eikon data showed.
A safe corridor in the Black Sea was agreed upon in July with difficulty for the passage of ships carrying grain. The passage will be monitored by a special group in Istanbul, operating under UN auspices.
Lebanon has been struggling for the past couple of years with one of the world's worst financial crises and is currently facing a particularly acute bread shortage.
